On 8/18/2015 2:33 PM, Frank Whiteley wrote:
People are just lazy. That's my opinion. My evidence includes the fact
that one can join my own club (including one time initiation) for about
1/2 what most of us pay to insure *old* gliders and (when qualified) get
the keys to an HpH 304c. Yep, a real, live 40+:1 glass slipper,
equipped for basic XC and with a serviceable trailer too. The number of
people who grab this opportunity is astonishingly small. Those that do
almost invariably get smitten with the sport and move whatever pieces of
heaven and earth are required to procure their own high performance
glider (leaving the 304 available for the next convert!).

Most people, most *pilots* just don't want to put in the work.

It simply isn't possible to provide more encouragement than we already
do.

My start was when the chief instructor handed me a barograph and said to
smoke it right away as it was a good day to fly 50k. I wasn't given the
opportunity to say no.

Frank Whiteley

What Frank described is how I got 2/3 of my Silver when I got started, i.e.
being handed ("forced") opportunities to fly with a barograph. Since then, I
can recall exactly one attempt to bag Silver Distance, which failed. Somewhere
along in there I realized soaring could provide what I was looking for from
piloting: 1) flight, and 2) continuing challenge. Considered from that
perspective, my motivation was "purely selfish." Never did "bother" to obtain
any further badge recognition.

Yet somewhere(s) along the line I began considering/looking for ways to
(choose whichever apply to your worldview): "give back," share with others,
proselytize, etc. "Know thyself" played a part in that I've long considered
myself world's worst salesman in the sense that I've little interest/ability
preaching to a disinterested - or even neutral - audience...at least not
face-to-face. Books were about it for me - one on the proselytizing front, and
one to-the-choir/"possibly-interested-general-aviation-types" audience. Never
could talk myself into going the CFIG route. Been a member of clubs that
DIScouraged and ENcouraged XC. Ignored the naysayers; followed internal
motivation; did my own thing; looked out for potential other "XC weirdos;"
tried to encourage all considering/taking lessons & suggested they'd be helped
by "knowing themselves;" pondered the mysteries of life...

Seen a lot of good thoughts in this thread, and encourage everyone who now or
periodically feels extra motivation to
spread-the-word/sell-soaring/grow-the-sport/etc./etc./etc., to do so in ways
they can support and sustain, because the truism "if no one does anything,
nothing will happen," definitely applies. If there IS "a magic bullet" to sell
soaring (and I don't think there is), it's action. There ain't no panacea
approach; arguably all sales efforts have merit; there might BE something to
the Nike approach. (Just do it!)

Keep those ideas coming, keep those internal fires stoked, do "it" when you
can while recognizing "it" doesn't have to - although it *can* or *might*
(your choice) - be a "massive lifestyle change" on your part. In other words,
just because you obtain your CFIG doesn't preclude continuing solo XC "for
yourself". Nor do you have to reinvent your club over the winter, and failing
that, consider your efforts a failure. Do what's reasonable for you and your
circumstances.

Along the way, it may help your own internal "sales motivation" if (like me)
you find active selling to be a chore, you maintain a realistic view of your
efforts and their likely and actual effects. My own proselytizing efforts have
always been motivated mostly from a sense it was the right thing to do, as
distinct from (say) expecting to fundamentally change the world in the way any
casual observer could detect, or, because I expected attaboys from fellow club
members. I consider the former unrealistic, and the latter a good way to
increase one's personal disappointment quotient...which topically circles
around to the sentiment expressed above Frank's post! So like Mr. Spock in The
Simpsons cartoon; "I'll be leaving now. My work here is done."

Bob W.

P.S. Oh didn't I?